Erica's POV

I was sleeping peacefully in this summer night. Well nothing new about that, I had been sleeping through most of my pregnancy. But this night I had been waking up at much shorter and regular intervals. I could feel light pressures in my abdomen. I pushed it off considering the extra amount of food I ate in the dinner. I tried dozing off to sleep again but I jerked off from sleep once again as I felt the pressure in my abdomen. This time I could pinpoint that it was because of the full bladder. I had to pee. I crawled off the bed to the bathroom and did my business before snuggling to my dear husband once again.

But the night felt much longer as I couldn't get some sleep. I once again felt those slight pains in my abdomen. They were lighter than the period cramps. These pains would subside in a matter of few minutes, so I saw no point in waking up Shaheer.

I have had several pains during the entire night which kept fading away every time I moved a bit. I spent my entire night tossing and turning, trying to alleviate the pains. I tried to sleep off the fact that a human being was trying to explode from my body. After another hour of tossing and turning, which for some reason did not alarm or wake my husband. After I hit my sixth month of pregnancy, sleeping on my back or stomach went out the window, and trailing behind it went any chance of a comfortable night sleep, so my husband was pretty use to sleeping next to a break dancing baby walrus. I couldn't lay in the bed any longer and just then realization struck me that these could be the contractions. I instantly started worrying. I was just six months along, this baby cannot come out now. Its too early. Just then another contraction hit me. My stomach felt as hard as a boulder, but where before it would subside and become soft again, that momentary relief was becoming far and in between. These pains were short and very irregular. I knew that i could wait till the contractions get strong. 

I started walking in the room trying to alleviate the pains. I paced around around the room as the contractions hit me but with long intervals. As I walked around, I accidentally knocked over the jug on the side table which startled Shaheer out of sleep. He jerked out of sleep and instantly turned on the lights. 

"Hey, Whats wrong Eri? Are you fine?" he asked after he turned the lights on and saw me consciously holding my baby bump. Just when I was about to answer, a strong contraction hit me and a whimper broke out of my mouth. My knees buckled up as I tried balancing the pain out. Shaheer jumped out of the bed alarmed and held me firmly as I tried to compose myself. 

"Eri, Are you okay? do we need to go to the hospital?" He asked, concerned. He sat me on the sofa at the corner o the room.

"I guess we need to. These contractions were very light but these are getting stronger. I dont want the baby to be out now. I don't want it to be premature." I said heaving out the stress. I was getting worried. We are not ready for the baby to be premature. That is a lot of risk.

"Eri calm down. Everything will be fine. Lets go to the hospital. Do not stress out." He said calming me down. He helped me out to the car before we drove down to the hospital.

******* 

"Eri calm down!" he said reassuring me. It looked like he was assuring himself more than me. Though he was calming me down through out the entire drive, i could clearly see that even he was scared and petrified over the fact that the baby might actually come today. I held his hands as if telling him through gestures that we can do this no matter what. We'll figure it out. He smiled at me as we waited for the doctor to come back and tell us what actually has went wrong. as if on cue, the doctor walks in and takes a seat.

"I know both of you are really tensed. but no need to worry. The contractions that you are having, Mrs. Sheikh, are called Braxton Hicks Contractions. These are like the practice contractions. These are pretty normal. You'll be fine." She said as both of us heaved a sigh of relief. But if these contractions are so hard, I cant even imagine what the real ones are gonna feel like. 

"You were having pretty strong ones. I think its partially the reason that you were a bit dehydrated. We'll hook you up to the IV and we'll monitor you till evening. I guess everything will be fine by then." The doctor said and i fell back to the back of the seat. Now i had to spend the night in the hospital. Hospitals are miserable and i hate staying there. Ugghh! Sure pregnancy is a beautiful thing but it felt awful at few time, this time being one of them.

I ended up spending the day in the hospital. They actually did monitor me and the baby evey one hour just to make sure that the baby wasn't progressing to labor. As the bags of IV fluid was in me, i actually couldn't feel the intensity of the contractions. I guess the doctor was correct about the dehydration part. Finally after spending 18 hours at the hospital, the doctor thought that i was okay to go home. I had huge smile on my face as I walked out of the hospital hand in hand with Shaheer considering that iwepulled into the hospital thinking that our baby would come right then and there